Driving the nation
The latest Official Gazette informs us that the Vice-President (and appointed succesor) Nicolás Maduro has been given broad new powers in economic matters.
Those duties include overseeing the budget and other public credit operations, authorizing expropiations and matters related to imports, creating public entities, and naming their board members.
Meanwhile Maduro got a lot of attention last Christmas Eve with his latest statement regarding the health of the comandante presidente (that he was up and about, “exercising”), which kinda contradicted what the Information Minister Ernesto Villegas informed in cadena nacional hours earlier (that he was resting per doctor’s orders).
The day after, Villegas was forced to save face on VTV and blamed (who else?) the private media for any “confusion” between both reports. 24 hours later, Maduro followed suit.
UPDATE: Maduro has signed his first decree, extending labor immobility for 2013.
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